I recently took the plunge and joined a new social networking website. I don’t do this lightly, as I’m keenly aware of the number of useless websites that are sending me spam on an almost daily basis, and the number of websites I’ve signed up for and only visited once or twice. There’s so much shit out there, and I know I have to streamline my online presence eventually.
What was I saying? Sorry, I’m a little drunk. Oh, yeah. A new social networking site. It’s attractive to me, because it’s fitness related. I can record my fitness activities on there and the site turns it all into a sort of game. There are quests, achievements, challenges... The site is Fitocracy, If you’ve never seen the site, I recommend you check it out regardless of your current fitness level for one main reason: If you try it out, and you dig the format, it makes working out a helluva lot of fun. See, when you’ve finished a hardcore workout, and you’re feeling strong and fit and awesome, sometimes you feel like a douche when you go to post a boasty little “Fuck yeah” on Facebook, as surely people don’t go on there to see that sort of shit, and they’ll feel obligated to ‘like’ your status so that you know they’re paying attention... So on and so forth.
Disregarding the fact that everybody does that with every aspect of their lives on Facebook anyway, it just feels even more like a douche move when you’re going on there to say “Sprinted til I hurled. Wicked cool”.
What I love about Fitocracy is that it’s the same shameless self-promotion, but that’s exactly why everyone else is there. They want you to know how much they bench, how fast they run, how many squats they can do. You want to know, because you’re into that shit. You want them to know that you know. The Fitocracy alternative to ‘liking’ someone’s status, is to give them props. People give you props for walking up the stairs rather than taking the lift. Because it’s dope. People give you props for getting achievements for getting props.
It does seem a little silly, but it’s a silly that I like. It’s motivating. I want to get out there and do cool shit so I can post it on Fitocracy and get props for it. I want to get quests and achievements. It’s pretty damn fun.
And it brings me to another point. Since the marathon last week, I’ve had three black toenails (Actually, to be perfectly honest I already had one black toenail before I ran the race, but now there’s three). I think it’s caused by blood blisters under the nail, at least in one case. I’m terrified that the bloody things are just going to randomly drop off. I posted something about it in the runners community on Fitocracy and got props from a whole bunch of people. I thought surely I’ve discussed the black toenail conundrum previously, but I just checked and I haven’t, at least on this blog. Apparently, and you may find this gross, some runners consider black toenails to be hallmarks of a hardcore runner. Because although some of the comments considered it as a bad thing, a large proportion of the people who commented were basically expressing congratulations. For the marathon. For the toenails. For everything all at once, because I rock.
Anyway, if you’re on Fitocracy or feel like kickstarting your fitness funtime, you can follow me on there. My username is (somewhat predictably) Frankenberger.
Now I’m going to go sleep so I can get up in the morning and run again. I ran this morning (just a speedy little 10km) but I’m determined to post another awesome workout on Fitocracy. For the props, doncha know.
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